Grassroots Politics, Sound Health Care

Kerala demonstrates that investment in human betterment is ultimately an investment in the development of the state.

Kerala stands out from the rest of India and the developing world for that matter because its citizens are well educated, organized and highly politically active; Kerala consistently maintains voting rates in the mid-80th percentile whereas last elections the U.S. had a turnout of 61%. Laboring classes have high levels of agency and hold their government responsible in meeting the needs and interests of the average working citizen. The state defines progress by social markers such as health and literacy as opposed to the markers of industrialization, agricultural output and per capita income adopted by neo-liberal states and nations. Under this alternative model of development, Kerala demonstrates that investment in human betterment is ultimately an investment in the development of the state.

The combination of Kerala’s Socialist economy, Social Democratic government, and highly active and engaged citizenry has enabled the state to effectively meet the health care needs of even its most impoverished peoples. Three years before Kerala gained sovereignty anti-malaria efforts were already underway in the form of the National Malaria Control Program which in 1958 was renamed the National Malaria Eradication Program (NMEP) due to the success of DDT and the commitment to malaria eradication in India at that time[1]. Malaria was eradicated from Kerala between 1965 and 1968 but returned due to a number of reasons including interstate and international travel, inadequate environmental sanitation, import of cases and mosquitos from other states, migration of increased numbers of laborers from other states, and a lack of developed public health provision in urban areas.[2] Since 1983 the Zonal Malaria organization, implemented under Multipurpose Workers scheme, has carried out detailed entomological studies in vulnerable areas of various districts. In 1994 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare appointed an expert committee to identify the problem areas and formulate specific strategies to tackle problems in such areas. To date there are 14 District Malaria Officers in the state. [3] Rates those testing positively for malaria have dropped dramatically from 10506 between 1996 and 1997 to 265 cases between 2005 and 2006.[4] The Plasmodium (malaria) parasite is incredibly complex and difficult to eradicate but Kerala’s universal health care and allocation of economic inputs to satisfy human medical needs has brought the state closer to eradication than any other that has malaria. The goal for Kerala’s health ministry is now to control the transmission of the disease and to wipe out malaria in certain parts of the state.

[1] http://www.brown.edu/Research/EnvStudies_Theses/full9900/creid/malaria_in_india.htm

[2] Sandeep

[3]http://www.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=65&Itemid=324

[4] Sandeep